


Watch the Feathers Fly

by Yevynaea



Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Blizzards & Snowstorms, Bodyswap, Magic, Oops, Tooth Fairies, basically magic happens and jack and tooth's bodies get switched, henna tattoos, jack is actually a half decent tooth fairy to everyone's surprise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-24
Updated: 2014-01-13
Packaged: 2017-12-30 09:26:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1016949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yevynaea/pseuds/Yevynaea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tooth and Jack get caught in a magical explosion, and the next thing they know, they're waking up in each other's bodies.</p><p>Snowstorms, henna, and chaos ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Switch

"Tooth, hold this please." North practically shoved a bottle of... _something_  into Tooth's arms, and the fairy struggled to wrap her hands around it before the whole thing could fall to the floor. North was rummaging around the shelves in his office, not-so-carefully pushing bottles and boxes aside and occasionally handing more things to her in his search for whatever he was looking for. She'd come to the workshop to ask him if he'd help her make a potion to help her fairies through the molting season like he always did, but before she could get a word out North had started handing things off to her.

"North, what are you doing?" Toothiana's feathers ruffled in annoyance. "I didn't come all the way up here to be used as a bookshelf!"

"One moment, Toothie. Is very important that I find lost potion." North strained his neck looking up to the top shelf, a worried expression on his face. "I am thinking someone has stolen it."

"Stolen a potion?" Tooth perked up, her tail feathers twitching with concern. "What does it do?"

North frowned. "That is problem. I do not know yet. I was planning to test new potion today, but now it is gone."

"Have you alerted the others?" Toothiana inquired, and the toy-maker shook his head. Tooth was about to say something else, but a knock at the door interrupted her. North kept rummaging through his shelves, obliviously muttering to himself, so Tooth fluttered over to open the door.

"Hey, Tooth!" Jack grinned as he flew in, leaning his staff against one wall. Then he turned to the other occupant of the room. "North, the yetis wanted to know when you were coming back to get that potion you left in the kitchens. I offered to bring it to you but they said something about me being 'untrustworthy and unbalanced' and they insisted you go get it yourself."

Tooth turned her best  _you-have-to-be-kidding-me_ glare on North, who blushed a brighter red than his coat and hurried from the room. Jack started to laugh at the older man's humiliation, but turned it into a choked cough when Tooth's glare turned on him.

"He thought someone had stolen it." Tooth explained, rolling her eyes as she began to put the things she was holding back on the shelf. She placed each thing neatly on the shelf, organizing a bit as she went, until finally everything was nicely where it should be, then she turned around to face the winter sprite again, a smile on her face this time instead of a glare. "Anyway, what are you doing here, Jack?"

"Oh, you know; just looking for something to do." Jack grinned, and Tooth suppressed a squeal at the sight of his perfect teeth. Jack had been visiting each of the other Guardians regularly since Pitch's defeat last Easter; Tooth didn't have to be a fearling to know that it was because Jack was afraid of losing them. He'd finally found a purpose, a place to belong, and he didn't want that to go away. Toothiana always made sure to have a job waiting for him at her Palace, so that he'd feel useful. And so she could get a break. It was win-win, really.

North walked back into the office a moment later, carrying a bottle of potion that was glowing a frighteningly bright shade of orange. Still blushing with embarrassment, North placed the bottle haphazardly on the edge of the nearest table, sitting down at a different table (as far from the offending potion as he could get) and glaring vehemently at his most recent ice sculpture. Tooth snickered, and North's gaze softened as it flicked over to her.

"You guys want to be alone, or something?" Jack teased, cackling when both of them grew even redder than before.

"Jack, you little--" Tooth sputtered, laughing despite herself. She flew over to him, and he stumbled back instinctively, still laughing even as he bumped the edge of a table. The same table North had placed the potion on, unfortunately, because when the table moved, the bottle fell. North shouted in alarm, and Jack and Tooth both dived to catch the potion, but it fell just between them and shattered, exploding into a noxious orange cloud. Tooth coughed, trying to fly backwards out of the cloud on instinct, but before she knew what was happening there were spots in her vision and her wings felt too heavy to move. She fell, and the last thing she was aware of was the cold floor beneath her feathers.

 

☼ ☼ ☼

 

            The last thing Jack remembered was a cloud. A bright orange cloud and the sound of shattering glass and then his senses were all going numb and he was falling…

            Jack blinked awake, eyes flickering half-open to stare at the ceiling above him. He felt a shock of pain in his back, and he rolled over onto his side, immediately feeling better now that there was no pressure on his back. Groggy, he reached one hand up to rub the sleep from his eyes. He didn’t notice anything wrong until he tried to throw his arm over his face to block out the light…and was nearly poked in the eye by a bright blue feather.

            “Oh no.” Jack groaned, sitting up and looking down at himself. Like his arm, the rest of him was covered in brightly colored feathers, and a quick look over his shoulder confirmed his suspicions about why his back had been hurting. “Wings. Fricking wings.” He muttered, pressing his hands against his closed eyelids as he wondered what the hell had been in that potion to make him look like Tooth… _Tooth_! Jack whipped his head around, taking in his surroundings for the first time as he looked for the fairy. He was on a hospital bed in the infirmary of North’s workshop; he recognized it from when he’d left his staff laying on the roof and had then fallen directly onto a stone window ledge before rolling into the snow. He probably would’ve needed stitches from that if he was human.

            Catching sight of movement from the corner of his eye, Jack turned around, and another realization hit him like a train as he gaped at the person sleeping in the next bed over. It was him. Well, by all evidence so far it was probably Tooth, but it _looked_ like him. White hair, pale _featherless_ skin, frost-covered blue sweatshirt, and his staff was leaning against the wall by the bed.

            He swung his legs over the side of the bed and grabbed the staff, but it felt awkward and heavy in his hands, not to mention cold from the frost patterns covering it. Swallowing the lump that had risen in his throat, Jack put the staff back where it had been. Then he tried walking a few steps toward the door, but his feet and ankles felt stiff and unused to the movement and weight. _Right, Tooth flies everywhere,_ Jack thought with a small sigh. He tried flapping his new wings, slowly at first, then faster, and they obliged, muscle memory taking control as Jack flitted to the open door of the infirmary. He peered out into the hallway, and right away was hit in the chest by a small blue projectile. _Baby Tooth,_ he realized when he met her mismatched eyes. He curled the tiny fairy in his hand protectively, not registering that he could understand her for a few moments.

            _“Mama you’re awake! Sisters were so scared but now you’re awake and where’s Jack is he awake yet Mama?”_

            Baby Tooth was still squeaking at him, but Jack reeled back, staring incredulously at the little tooth fairy that was curled against his feathers. He’d known that Tooth could understand her fairies, but he hadn’t known that it actually sounded like English to her when they spoke. Staring back up at him, Baby Tooth blinked in bewilderment, not understanding the sudden widening of purple eyes and agitated fluffing of feathers her greeting was met with.

            “Baby Tooth, I’m not your Mom, I’m Jack.” Jack told her, flinching at the too-high pitch of his voice, and the fairy cocked her head in confusion. “There was this potion, and then an explosion, and now I think Tooth and me have switched bodies.”

            _“Really?”_ Baby Tooth asked dubiously, looking him over suspiciously.

            “Yeah, really. Stop looking at me like I’m crazy.” Jack scolded.

            “What on _Earth_ is going on here?!” Jack heard his own voice (his normal voice) yell from inside the infirmary, and he cringed. Flying back inside with Baby Tooth close behind, he saw Tooth-in-Jack’s-body staring at herself half in confusion and half in shock. When Jack flew in, Tooth snapped her head up, looking him up and down once before repeating her question.

            “I don’t know, Tooth, but trust me; I’m just as uncomfortable as you.” Jack grumbled as he fluttered over to plop down on the foot of the bed. Tooth groaned, putting her head in her hands and quickly getting distracted by her new hair.

            The two of them—three really, if you counted a thoroughly befuddled Baby Tooth—sat in silence for a minute, before Tooth started shaking. At first Jack thought she was crying, so he racked his mind for something to say to her, but then she made a noise almost like a snort and Jack recognized his own laugh.

            “Your hair is really soft.” Tooth finally managed, and without really knowing what was funny, Jack couldn’t help but laugh along. They both laughed borderline hysterically, because what else could they do?

            _“I believe you now, I think.”_ Baby Tooth squeaked quietly in Jack’s ear, fighting back giggles herself. That comment, of course, only made Jack laugh harder.


	2. Visiting Big Root

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Tooth (and the rest of the Guardians) go to visit Santoff Claussen. Ombric has to have SOMETHING that will change them back ASAP, right? Right?
> 
> (Spoiler alert: the answer is no.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry I forgot about this fic for a while. x) Hopefully updates will starts to get more regular again now that the holidays are over, though. :)

**__ **

            Tooth was disappointed to learn that she couldn’t understand her fairies this way, as she discovered when Baby Tooth said something to Jack and all Tooth heard were birdlike squeaks. Of course, her fairies had always had high-pitched voices, but now it was just squeaks instead of words to her. Tooth had her mother’s ability to understand any language in the world, even quite a few of the ones spoken by animals, but her fairies were a part of _her,_ specifically; they’d come from her, and now she wasn’t herself. She wondered if…

            “Jack, can you understand my fairies?” She asked still unused to having her voice be so deep, and Jack nodded, head feathers bouncing up and down. “That’s good, I suppose. At least one of us can.”

            “Wait, you mean you can’t anymore?” Jack frowned, and it was _so_ strange for Tooth to see her own face do that. Baby Tooth frowned as well from where she’d landed on Jack’s shoulder. “I thought you could understand every language on Earth…or something like that.”

            “But the fairies are all connected to each other, and directly to me.” Tooth explained. “Only a tooth fairy can understand the language of tooth fairies, apparently.”

            Her wording made her realize…she wasn’t technically a Tooth fairy any more. Until they could get this fixed, she was a winter spirit. And Jack was the Tooth Fairy. She would have to bring snow, ice lakes; it was the beginning of November and the northern hemisphere would be expecting the first snow in quite a few places soon. Meanwhile, Jack would have to work with her fairies. Help organize the teeth, make sure each fairy went where they were needed…

            “Oh, gods.” Tooth muttered to herself, head in her hands. “This is going to be terrible if we can’t fix this soon.”

            Baby Tooth nodded her solemn agreement.

            “Maybe it’ll just wear off?” Jack said hopefully, but Tooth could hear the question at the end. She was going to reply, but was quickly distracted by Jack’s hands on hers, stilling them. She hadn’t even realized they were moving, but she’d been clenching her hands into fists repeatedly, as if her hands were _too_ empty. “That’s a habit of mine.” Jack admitted.

            “Apparently a very physical one, instead of a mental one.” Tooth smiled.

            “No, I actually tried to grab the staff when I first woke up, but it felt wrong in my hands.” Jack sounded melancholy, and Tooth supposed it stood to reason. The staff was Jack’s shield and sword; it comforted him and he used it to control his powers, no wonder he’d mourn not being able to feel the same comfort from it now.

            Tooth reached out to grab the staff from where it leaned against the wall, stopping when Jack inhaled audibly. She looked to him for permission, and he shook his head self-dismissively. Smiling apologetically, Jack fluttered his wings ( _Tooth’s_ wings).

            “It’s just weird to see someone else going for the staff, even if you do look like me now.” Jack almost-chuckled, the sound odd coming from Toothiana’s mouth.

            Hesitantly, Tooth grabbed the staff, letting out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding as she held it close, feeling comforted by it like she knew Jack must all the time.

            Just then, the door swung open, and all three of them looked up to see Bunnymund in the doorway, North and Sandy both close behind.

            “Tooth, Jack, you are both awake! Good!” North grinned. “Everything is okay, yes? See, Bunny, I told you potion was nothing to worry about.”

            “Um, no, North, everything’s not okay.” Jack replied irritably. North blinked in confusion.

            “North, that potion…it seems to have…” Tooth trailed off, unsure how to explain. “Well it seems to have switched mine and Jack’s bodies.”

            “You gotta be bloody kidding me.” Bunny brought one paw up to his face.

            “Nope. Snowballs and fun times here.” Jack waggled his fingers at the Pooka, who groaned. Sandy giggled silently at Jack’s antics.

            “I will get started on counter-potion straight away.” North promised. Then he frowned. “No, I will go to Santoff Claussen. We will all go, immediately. I have feeling that Ombric’s help will be needed for this.”

 

☼ ☼ ☼

 

            North left Phil in charge of the workshop during his absence, then all of them boarded the supply train that traveled between the workshop and Santoff Claussen. Tooth had a bit of trouble walking at first, but she hadn’t yet learned to do anything with Jack’s staff and didn’t want to try flying. Jack’s body retained a certain amount of muscle memory, though, so Tooth got the hang of walking fairly quickly and was almost completely steady by the time they got onto the train.

            Baby Tooth had taken up residence in Tooth’s sweatshirt pocket, (Jack’s sweatshirt, really, but it was so confusing to try and figure out what counted as Tooth’s now that she _was_ Jack physically) and four other mini fairies that had come along to the workshop were nestled in various places on Tooth and Jack, comforting their mother and their friend both. There was one in Tooth’s hair, one on each of Jack’s feathered shoulders, and another perching happily in the top of Jack’s staff. (The staff, at least, Tooth knew she couldn’t count as hers. It was Jack’s in way more ways than one, she wasn’t about to claim it, even though Jack’s body’s instincts _really_ wanted her to be holding it at all times.)

            When the group arrived in Santoff Claussen, they were greeted enthusiastically by a good majority of the village’s children almost as soon as they got off the train. Heading quickly through the crowd and to Big Root, North knocked on Ombric’s front door insistently until the old wizard opened it.

            “Nicholas, I am in the middle of a very important project, and--”

            “Not now, Ombric. A potion has caused problems.” North ushered the other Guardians inside, much to Ombric’s annoyance.

            “You know I love having you all here, but now is _not_ a good time.” The Atlantean insisted.

            “Too bad, mate, we need your help.” Bunny looked over to Jack and Tooth, but neither of them looked much like they wanted to explain. Tooth explained anyway, starting her story with the potion breaking, then telling Ombric about the following changes.

            “You’re right, you do need help. Just not mine.” Ombric frowned. “Without the original potion I can’t make one to counter-act it.”

            “What?” Jack exclaimed indignantly, tail feathers twitching. “I thought you had magic for everything, can’t you just fix this with a spell, or something?”

            Ombric shook his head, shrugging apologetically.

            “Like magic fixes like.” He explained. “If this had been done to you with a spell I could reverse it with a spell, or with a simple chant of ‘I believe’ if the spell was simple enough, but potions are not the same. To counter the effects of a potion one has to create a potion that is the first potion’s opposite.”

            “Ingredients for potion are still written down in workshop,” North piped up. “I will send message to Phil, have him deliver recipe by train.”

            “But that means you probably won’t even be able to start making the counter-potion until tomorrow.” Tooth realized, and Jack groaned in disappointment.

            Sandy finally spoke up, sand shifting into a clock, then a calendar, then a question mark. His inquiry wasn’t hard to decipher.

            “I’ll need to see the potion recipe first before I can make a time estimate.” Ombric admitted. “I have to go through it and find the opposite of each ingredient, then actually find the opposite-ingredients to make the counter-potion. It could take a few days, at least.”

            “And at most?” Jack dreaded even asking the question at all.

            “Probably closer to a month.” Katherine answered as she entered the room with Nightlight on her heels. No one really knew how long the young woman had been listening. Or, well, _old_ woman, technically, but Katherine had long since learned how to control her age, and she still looked fourteen most of the time. (Nightlight had the same ability; Katherine had taught him at the same time she’d perfected it.)

            “Great.” Jack sighed. “So me and Tooth could both be stuck like this for a month?”

            “Hopefully it won’t take quite that long.” Ombric placated. “With Katherine and myself-- and Nicholas when he has time-- all working on it, it should be fairly soon that we get you back to normal. In the meantime, I suggest you lot get home; you all have your own work to do.”

☼ ☼ ☼

            They didn’t go back the same way they came, instead going their separate ways for the time being. Sandy flew off, Bunny took one of his tunnels back to his Warren, and North used a couple of snow globes to get himself, Jack, and Tooth all home. Tooth and Jack both ended up at the Tooth Palace, along with the mini fairies that had tagged along. The fairies got back to work, and Tooth showed Jack the way to her bedroom, leaping carefully from one part of the Palace to another as Jack guided her. It was still weird to have to rely on the Wind to fly, but with Jack’s help she managed to get it. Kind of.

            “You actually sleep in a nest?” Jack snickered when they finally reached the bedroom, only shutting up when Tooth shot him a scowl.

            “Sometimes I sleep on that perch up there.” Tooth pointed with Jack’s staff up at said perch. “Besides, the nest is more of a big blanket pile than anything.”

            Jack barely remembered in time not to let himself land on his wings, rolling onto his side mid-fall as he dropped like a stone into the nest. He nestled contentedly into the blankets, ready to sleep after their long day, but Tooth stood in the doorway, unsure what to do or where to go for now. After all, Jack would have to be the Tooth Fairy tomorrow as the only one who could now understand the fairies, and she would have to be Jack Frost. They both were going to need help from the other in taking on their new roles, especially if it ended up taking a month to get them back into their own bodies like Katherine had said.

            “Hey.” Jack muttered sleepily, breaking Tooth out of her thoughts. She spun, and Jack patted the bed gently. Gratefully, Tooth walked over, nestling down next to Jack in the nest and leaning the staff up against the wall as gently as she could. “We’ll start figuring this stuff out tomorrow.” Jack said comfortingly.

            Tooth nodded, body relaxing as she let go of her worries for now. Jack was right; they could figure this out tomorrow.


	3. Learning New Roles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Tooth both teach each other how to do their new jobs.

            “Just reach out, with your mind, and you’ll be able to sense where the teeth and fairies are. I dull that down sometimes just so I’ll be able to concentrate on one thing, but while you’re directing fairies you’ll have to bring it back up to the surface.” Tooth instructed, and Jack nodded, closing bright purple eyes and concentrating like she’d told him to, reaching out mentally. At first he wasn’t sure if he’d succeeded at reaching out at all, but then there was a sudden _snap_ as his awareness expanded and Jack could sense everywhere the little tooth fairies were, he could feel where they needed to go, it was like his mind was going in a thousand directions at once.

            “How do you even _think_ with all this stuff in your head, let alone focus?” Jack inquired, suddenly in awe of Tooth’s mental strength. Tooth’s cheeks flushed a blue-purple kind of color, and she smiled a gentle smile that Jack wasn’t used to seeing on his own face.

            “Come up here.” She leapt up into the Wind, landing shakily (but staying upright, which was impressive for someone so unused to moving the way Jack’s body had to) on a platform thirty feet up from the one they were on. Jack followed her, letting out a low exclamation of amazement at the ever-moving pillar of mini fairies that were flying through the center of the Palace, bringing teeth from all over the world and grabbing coins from dispensers to bring with them on their next journey.

            “It looks like they’re doing okay on their own, why do you have to direct them?” Jack wondered, turning to Tooth in confusion.

            “They do okay by themselves for the most part, but they’re technically a part of me—or you, now that we’ve gotten all mixed up—so if I’m too distracted or leave them on their own for too long they start to have trouble.” Tooth explained. “Sometimes they might forget to leave the coins, or they’ll go to the wrong house and get confused when there’s no tooth, or two of them will g to the same house and fight over it; it’s just a big mess and by the time everything’s sorted out we’re behind schedule. So most of the time I make sure I’m here to make sure everything runs smoothly.”

            Jack nodded, understanding, then realized that Toothiana was looking at him expectantly. He suddenly felt very nervous about doing the job of the Tooth Fairy. Tooth caught on to his anxiety, though, and smiled encouragingly.

            “You can do it,” She assured him, “It’s quite literally in your DNA now.”

            Jack laughed, flitting forward to where the fairies were. They kept flying, but now they were watching him, waiting for their instructions. Jack took a deep breath, brought the connection back up to the front of his mind, and almost on instinct, started giving directions to the fairies.

            “Canine in Estes Park, sector eight. Molar from Chiswick, sector eleven…” Every time a new tooth popped up in his mind Jack said the location of it, then mentally assigned it to a fairy, and soon he was so wrapped up in the job that he didn’t notice at first when Tooth’s hand was on his shoulder. He stopped talking and looked at her, and she grinned.

            “See, I told you it was easy.” She joked. “You can keep the mental connection open and keep directing them from other places too, if it isn’t too hard to concentrate on whatever else you’re doing, so I was hoping you could…um…teach me how to do the stuff you do. Snow days and all that.”

            Jack agreed, and the two of them soon took off for Burgess, heading to Jack’s lake where Tooth could learn how to use and control ‘her’ new powers without accidentally snowing out India. Or anywhere else, hopefully, but they decided that it was better to be safe than sorry and go somewhere that was actually _supposed_ to be snowy this time of year.

            They started with frost, since that was the easiest, Jack spacing out occasionally to direct fairies but still focused enough to help Tooth.

            “It’s just like you said before,” Jack stated. “It’s just in your DNA, you have to find it and bring it out into the open. But it’s not really about concentration, it’s about feeling. My powers are tied to my emotions.”

            Tooth nodded, hands palm-down on the ice as she kneeled by the side of the already-frozen lake. (Jack had frozen it in early October, and it wouldn’t thaw until mid-June; it felt wrong to have his lake _not_ frozen.) Tooth tried to relax and let herself feel happy, a soft smile curling her lips, then under her hands there were ferns of frost curling outward onto the lake.

Laughing triumphantly, Tooth picked up the staff when Jack nudged it toward her, letting him lead her out onto the ice. She didn’t slide around as she thought she would, instead easily moving across the lake as if skating while Jack flew alongside her, telling her how to balance and make frost on the lake with the staff. She followed his instructions easily, though once when she almost lost her balance and felt a strong breeze helping her keep it, she wondered how much of her balance had been her own and how much had been the Wind helping her along. She thanked the Wind silently for catching her, anyway, and felt another breeze playfully ruffle her hair.

Once she’d learned the basics of frost and practiced flying some more, they moved on to snowflakes, the glittering blue ones that Jack used to help people feel happier when they were upset or stressed. These required just as much emotion, but she also had to focus to make the snowflakes unique and actually snowflake-shaped. It was easy once she got the hang of it.

“I don’t hand-craft every snowflake like I do these ones, so actually making it snow is more instinct than anything else.” Jack said when Tooth asked him about it. “You just have to think about how you want the snow; whether the flakes should be big and fluffy or small and icy, and how much there’s going to be.”

Jack stayed on the ground when Tooth eventually flew up into the clouds, calling the Wind like Jack had told her and gathering the fluffy white clouds into one huge light-grey mass. Then, as she flew through the cloud she’d gathered, she willed snowflakes to fall, fluffy and light, just a small layer of them for her first try making it snow.

Jack had warned that since the weather depended on her emotions now, she’d have to concentrate to keep them under control or the snow could get _out_ of control. Jack told her that blizzards, snowstorms, sleet, even sometimes a few _feet_ of snow more than he’d intended on a snow day had all been consequences of his inability to keep the snow under his control; Tooth didn’t want to accidentally create a blizzard her first time acting in Jack’s place. So she kept the snowfall light, landing almost-steadily in front of Jack when it was finished and giving a grin and an extravagant bow, looking over the two inches of snow with pride.

Jack clapped enthusiastically, grinning right back as he shook snowflakes out of his feathers. He was unused to the cold affecting him, and was glad to be done teaching Toothiana so that now they could go back to the Tooth Palace. Except…

“I should probably start putting snow in a few places, huh?” Tooth inquired, and Jack nodded. “How will I know where to go?”

“Just go wherever feels right. The Wind can find you places that need snow if you need the help.” Jack shrugged. He never really had a set plan for where he was going to make it snow. Tooth nodded.

“I’ll come back to the Tooth Palace in a few days…” She smiled uncertainly before adding, “Take care of my fairies!”

“I will.” Jack assured her, waving as he flew away, letting Tooth’s power of knowing where her fairies were to direct him toward the Tooth Palace.

“Okay, Wind,” Tooth called once Jack was out of sight, “Take me where we’re needed.”

The Wind complied happily, lifting Tooth off the ground and carrying her over the world with a practiced grace Tooth could only guess the Wind had gotten from carrying an energetic Jack everywhere.

 

☼ ☼ ☼

 

Tooth practically fell out of the air once she got back to Burgess, hours later, the Wind dropping her into a snow pile in someone’s yard before ruffling at her hair and disappearing. Tooth, half-asleep, nestled into the pleasant coolness of the snow, throwing one arm over her face to block out the light and not noticing there was someone nearby until they poked at her arm. Reluctantly, the fairy-turned-frost-sprite opened her eyes and looked around to find a little boy grinning at her. _Jamie Bennett; the Last Light. This must be his house,_ her tired brain supplied.

“Hi, Jamie.” She yawned, rolling over and closing her eyes again, but then Jamie was shaking her shoulder and laughing.

“You can’t fall asleep here Jack, my mom and I just finished shoveling our driveway, you’ll get the snow all over it again.” Jamie laughed, and _oh yeah,_ she was Jack now. Sort of. She was also way too tired for this, spirits didn’t usually need to sleep very often but with as stressful of a week she’d been having so far Tooth wouldn’t be surprised if she slipped into a short coma at this point.

“‘M not Jack.” She grumbled sleepily as she sat up. “I’m Tooth. Me and Jack switched bodies. It’s complicated.”

Jamie didn’t believe her, if his dubious expression was anything to go by.

“There was a magic potion, one of North’s,” She elaborated, stretching as she stood up, “Me and Jack knocked it over, and long story short, Jack is currently the Tooth Fairy.”

“Seriously?” Jamie still looked unsure.

“Yes.”

“Is Jack actually any good at being a Tooth Fairy?” Jamie snickered. Tooth giggled, nodding.

“Yeah, he is.” She confirmed, understanding the boy’s skepticism. Jack didn’t seem the sort of person to stay focused on one thing long enough to do the job directing the fairies, but he’d done a good job once Tooth had directed him on how to do it.

“Jamie, is this yours?” A voice called from the house, and Tooth and Jamie looked up to see the boy’s mother holding a box out toward him, just barely smaller than a shoebox. Jamie shook his head.

“It’s Pippa’s; she left it here earlier before her Dad picked her up to go to his house.” Jamie told her.

“Okay, I’ll leave it in here on the coffee table.” Ms. Bennett looked at the sky, which was starting to get darker as the sun began to set. “Ten more minutes then you need to come inside, okay?”

“‘Kay!” Once his mom had shut the door, Jamie looked back to Tooth.

“What was that box?” Tooth asked curiously.

“Huh? Oh!” Jamie grinned sheepishly. “Pippa brought it over; it’s a henna set. She’s learning how to use it, like how to make all the designs and stuff. She said she’ll give all of us tattoos once she gets good at it.”

“Henna, huh? I used to be pretty good at that.” Tooth allowed herself a tiny, sad, smile, remembering when she’d been young and her parents had taught her how to create intricate designs out of henna paste. There were days, in her childhood, living in a village in the jungle with her parents, when Tooth and her parents would be covered head-to-toe with flowering images. Rashmi, Haroom, and Toothiana would all laugh and talk as they decorated each other’s skin. When Tooth was twelve, she lost her last baby tooth and sprouted feathers and wings, and not long after her parents had been taken from her.

She’d made henna paste again, over the decades, for special occasions, and made the same delicate designs for some of the other Guardians, but she hadn’t been able to do the same for herself. Now, though, now that she was in Jack’s body and had normal skin again, she could.

“You okay?” Jamie shook her shoulder a bit. “You kind of spaced out there for a second.”

“I’m fine. Just thinking.” Tooth shook her head to rid it of the memory. “Do you think Pippa would mind me using her henna kit if I promised to replace it?”

“I can call her and ask.” Jamie grinned, taking his cell phone out (“it’s brand new”, he boasted) to call his friend.


End file.
